A church, he hadn't been expecting to find her inside a church of all places, considering the dead rising and killing the living. But, as he stared into those emerald pools of hers, the ones that glinted in the dark, Y/N found himself forgetting the irony of the situation and instead, focusing on Alice in all her spiritual essence.

After having gone through untold amounts of immoral and obviously illegal subjections of the T-virus, she looked well. In fact, she looked more than well. He could sense the infection in her, pulsing back and forth in her bloodstream as if it had always been there.

But other than the T-virus, she looked the same, if not for the fact that her hair had taken a darker shade than the strawberry blonde it had been in the Hive, and now her waithy locks presented as a dirty blonde.

Possible side effects of the T-virus, either way he didn't care, if at all, he liked it better than the last.

She was outfitted in a mud patched tank top, cargo pants and combat boots. The holsters strapped to her body spoke volumes of the guns she was carrying, she came prepared and packing heat. While Y/N himself had only packed lightly in weapons, preferring more ammo than the arsenal of guns. Thinking back on his newfound strength, perhaps it would've been better to pack more heavily, he thought.

Still, he was here now and that was all that mattered in his mind.

Blinking, he inclined his head slightly towards the others in the group. Two cops, one civilian, he identified and were looking slightly wary at the duo. He couldn't fault them, really. Turning back to Alice, he sheepishly lowered his head as he noticed the shotgun on the floor he had crushed in his entrance.

He still had yet to get used to his newfound strength.

"Shit, I'm sorry about—"

But whatever he had to excuse himself with was cut off when he was pulled into a hug, he almost flinched at the speed in which Alice grasped him by, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling her to him. Despite being half a head taller than her, she cradled her own against his chest as she breathed him in and listened to the thumping of his heartbeat.

Slightly shocked at the move, he brought his arms up and hesitantly placed his hands around the small of her back and rested his chin above her brow. Worried he'd crush her, he tried to be gentle as he could, yet Alice showed no sign of discomfort when he embraced her back and breathed in her familiar earthly sense.

Pulling back, Alice let go of him and observed him up and down, before nodding her head, a slight smile gracing her lips as she spoke, her voice rough, "You're okay."

Y/N returned her nod in kind and chuckled, "I'm okay, if you don't count the obvious."

He figured she knew he was referring to the T-virus that flooded his own bloodstream, and he felt a breath of relief when she understood, defined by the look she gave him. The same look she had given him in the Hive, standing over the zombified corpse of her fake husband, Spencer. The one that slightly glossed over his face with her green pools, searching and revealing in his presence as a flutter went off in her stomach cavity.

Turning back to the others, he noticed the female cop giving them a side line look, watching them intently before she dropped
her arm at her side and spoke in her usual sarcastic personality, "You two done eye fucking each other?"

Back before their veins were pumping them through with wacked off steroids and a viral infection between them, perhaps the two of them would of blushed red at the remark. But it seemed they didn't despite the flutter of Alice's eyes that told something different, as she turned to Valentine for just a moment before returning to the room around. While Y/N had the good graces to look confused, despite the contrary, something plucked at his heart strings with that comment.

'Way to ruin a moment.' Y/N thought as he stepped back.

As if she were reading his mind, Alice scowled before gazing back at the survivors and gesturing to them to follow, "Let's move."

All business and no play, Alice took the lead as she moved past the dead bodies of the lickers, and Y/N led in step beside her as the others followed after them. They walked with a spring in their step as they were determined to get a move on, if not for the fact that they were a sitting duck, but the infected banging on the doors that Terri had opened and almost got them all killed.

"Where are we going?" Terri asked as they neared the back of the church, passing through the hallways of the building.

But it seemed Alice was more focused on getting out, and ignored her as they reached the end of the hallway. Mindlessly, Y/N looked to an open door on the far right as they reached the back entrance to the church and noticed two dead bodies. A priest and an older infected woman, a single bullet hole in their heads.

'Huh.'

Pushing it away, Y/N carried on until they reached the familiar sight of a heavy wooden door. The giant ones you'd normally see in a church. Alice stopped beside it and began to reload her submachine guns, slapping new mags into their respective entrances, while Y/N cracked the doors open slightly and peered outside.

He didn't see anyone, and he couldn't sense any of them either.

"We're clear." Y/N said as he pushed the doors open and Alice followed. She didn't need to ask him if he was sure, they were familiar enough with each other that they trusted their judgment more than anyone.

There was a graveyard across the way, and Alice made a beeline to that as they made contact with a title of earth and descended onto the grounds that only the dead inhabited.

Again, the irony was not lost on anyone.

"And what the fuck are we doing here?" Terri Morales exclaimed as they crossed the mound of dirt and earth, the grass beneath their feet crumpling in their wake, as they did not answer. "Hello? Am I the only one noticing that we're in a graveyard, people."

'Reporters, yuck. They sure love to run their mouths.' Y/N thought, judging by the small and concealed ID badge she had hidden in her back pocket and the camcorder.

It seemed Jill was much the same, as she rolled her eyes before turning to Alice and then Y/N, "So, what's the plan."

"Stay alive." Alice simply replied.

Y/N found himself almost stopping in his tracks at the monotone voice she used. It seems, being away for so long, entwined in Umbrella's claws, had a slight effect on her. He couldn't fault her for being of few words right now, he was very much of the same mindset.

"That's it?" Terri stressed as she wrung her hands. "That's it?"

Y/N had more restraint than Valentine and kept his eye rolling to a minimum, and retorted with a huff, "That's it."

Jill had more concerns on her mind though, as she lugged her friend, Peyton forward as the man struggled to walk of his own free will, "We need to find somewhere to stop for the moment."

"We can't stop." Y/N remarked, not bothering to turn and give them a look, and instead, still focused on the path ahead.

Terri agreed wholeheartedly as she nodded her head vigorously as the prospect of out running the dead, "There could be more of those things out there."

"If there were more, we'd have seen them by now." Alice said matter of factually, shaking her head as they maneuvered through the graveyard and past the stone workings of people long since turned to dust and worm food.

"You know what they are?"

Y/N clicked his tongue as a sign of frustration, and replied, "They're bio-weapons from the Umbrella labs under Raccoon City."

Time ago, he would've outright refused to reveal classified information to a civilian. Now though, he was his own person, and as much as that was harder to grasp than being under Umbrella all his life, he still continued onwards.

He had to.

"Experiments," Alice explained as she shared a look with Y/N. "They were conducting experiments underground, thinking nobody would be the wiser." She exhaled and cold air passed her lips, "They thought wrong."

Valentine came to a halt as they stopped at a grave for a moment and inspected their surroundings, "How come you know so much about Umbrella?"

Alice shook her head as she looked to Y/N, focused on the back of his head as he peered into the distance, and something akin to frustration racked her head as she noticed a tension in his rigid movement and pacing his gaze around the area.

They needed to talk, but now was not the time.

Instead, she turned back to the others and replied, "We used to work for them."

Suddenly, Jill's partner, Peyton, grimaced hard and buckled against a head stone. The pain in the man's leg caused a curse to pass, as he clutched his leg with a hand, "Damn it."

It took Alice only a millisecond to notice the bite on his leg and immediately she pulled her sidearm, the barrel pointed at the bitten individual. Seeing this, Jill pulled her own on Alice and in turn she pulled her second pistol to bare, aiming at Valentine in return.

"Hold it!" Jill Valentine exclaimed, "What do you think you're doing?"

Before anyone could reply, Jill felt a piece of cold steel against the back of her head, causing the hair on her skin to rise. Y/N's pistol was primed against her, and a finger barely at the trigger piece, "I wouldn't advise that."

Alice chewed at her bottom lip, edging her pistol Peyton's way, "He's wounded. The infection's spreading."

"I'm fine." Peyton argued with a glare.

Y/N thought otherwise as he pressed his pistol further into Valentine's head to get her attention, "You should take care of him now. it'll just be more difficult later, you know that right?"

Jill scowled, shaking her as she turned her head slightly, and moved forward enough that the pressure was off her, but found that Alice's pistol pointed into her front neck, "No." She said, not at all fazed with the amount of guns pointed at her, "If it comes to that, I'll take care of it myself."

Alice took the time to analyse her, and with coming up with a decision, she relented, "As you wish." She lowered her pistols and holstered them. Turning to Y/N, she gave him a look and Y/N didn't need her to elaborate. He placed his sidearm away and stepped back, nodding to her as Alice spoke to Peyton, "It's nothing personal. But in an hour, maybe two you'll be dead."

Y/N spoke up, as he pushed past Valentine, "And then sooner or later, you'll become one of them. You'll endanger your friends, try to kill them and probably succeed." Peyton looked defeated, as he cradled his pistol in his grips, and Y/N softened. "I'm sorry, that's just how it is."

A sombre silence followed, with Peyton and Jill, while trying to act strong, looked secretly crestfallen, Y/N knew as much. Terri Morales only stared in silence, shocked and stunned. And Alice just shared a knowing look with her friend. They had seen it all before, and it wasn't pretty.

None of it was.

Y/N turned back to the distance and then felt a pressure on his hand, he looked down and found it was shaking slightly again. He clenched his fist tightly and as he was about to pull out a smoke, a piercing scream lifted from behind him. He cursed, and turned back, only to find that a zombie had literally risen from the grave and clutched onto Terri Morales' figure as she went crashing to the ground.

"Help me!"

Immediately Alice sprung to action faster than even Y/N, sending a forward kick into the maggot infested and rotten corpse of the zombie holding the woman's legs, killing it as Jill pulled Terri to her feet. Turning, Y/N noticed more rising up all round them. Acting quick, he rushed the first one, sending a flying punch directly into its face, and a part of him regretted that move as his fist went through it's flesh and skull, his arm hanging lowly as it was stuck through its head.

Grimacing at the move, he removed his fist from its face and onto the next one he went. He kicked it's legs from under itself and it fell to the ground, and followed by Y/N landing a stomp to it's head, crushing it like a watermelon. Looking up, he noticed Alice taking the fight to them, taking one down faster than lightning. She elbowed one in the stomach and then flipped over it's back and used the momentum to kick another zombie square in the face and elbowed her previous one.

He had to ramp it up a bit.

Turning to a group of them, about five, he charged ahead, barrelling into one of them and sending it flying and cracking its head into a nearby tombstone. To the other four, he grabbed one that was about to claw him by the torso and lifted it up, and threw it at the last three, its weight, carried by his strength, caused it to crush them into the ground and taking them out of the fight.

Peyton and Jill were holding their own well, as Terri hid by herself against a tombstone hoping not to be buried with the rest of the undead.

Y/N felt a sense from behind him and immediately elbowed a zombie on his rear, and quickly turned around and grabbed it's head before slamming it down the headstone of a grave and crashing both dead brain matter and stone. Taking down a few more, he noticed Alice fighting them one on one too, using faster pace combat and kicks in her strike, her agility far more refined than his, if he were honest.

With his newfound abilities, Y/N had found himself being faster at everything than a normal human, but nothing to the length of Alice who looked as if time was slowing for her as her attacks landed more gracefully than he remembered.

Still, if she was faster, he was stronger.

It played well in a fight too, one fast, one strong. The light attacks, coordinated and agile. While the other had brute strength, the back breaker that put most of the enemies on the defence, or just died straight away.

Putting it all aside, he turned to another zombie and grasped it by the neck, and gazed to Alice and noticed a dozen more heading in her direction as she killed off another infected.

"Alice!" She turned to him fast and quickly caught on to him as she ducked low, and immediately Y/N threw the zombie with all his might. He watched as the zombie went flying from his grasp, and colliding with the dozen infected, knocking them down and killing a few.

But no matter what, there were just too many of them. A hundred or so if Y/N was correct, and it seemed his friend agreed as she elbowed a zombie from her behind and shrugged it to the ground.

"There's too many of them." Alice warned, taking the lead as she killed another zombie in her way. "Let's get out of here. Move!"

Jill was first, grabbing Peyton as she dragged him with her, following after Alice as she led them from the graveyard. While the scared Terri Morales was shell shocked and stuck to her roots as she clung to the headstone.

Cursing, Y/N moved to her and took down two more zombies in his path. "Let's move!" He exclaimed as he grabbed her by the arm and began dragging her like she was a lost kid in a grocery store. "You wanna die here?"

"No!"

Y/N Snarked, "Then move your arse."

—

In another part of the city, close to the walls and surrounded by armed soldiers and fences, was the Umbrella Command Post. Currently the same one that Dr. Ashford was being held prisoner at, and of the leading point of Major Cain's operation.

An operation that was dreadfully getting out of hand, if anyone had the balls to admit it.

The command tent that was being overseen by Major Cain was in full effect, monitoring the entire situation on the ground.

"Sir, T-virus infection has reached critical levels." An ensign reported at a computer, and Major Cain only steadied his hands on the same desk and smirked slightly.

"This presents a perfect opportunity." Cain mussed as he stared into the computer screen. "Ensure all data streams are recorded. Activate the Nemesis Program now."

Doing as he said, the ensign quickly got to work at the keyboard in her grasp and rerouted to a screen clearly revealing the Nemesis in all his flesh and death-filled glory.

Activating Nemesis Program... ... ... Program Activated

"Now we shall see how they truly fight..." Cain said to himself as he stared into the face of the monstrous being, before straightening up as a bleep in his ear announced an incoming call, "Yes, I'm here." The major exited the command tent and accepted the call.

"Has the operative and his fireteam located Project Phoenix?"

Major Cain hesitated, "No, sir. But I assure you, they are tracking his movements without delay. Though, if they prove to be ineffective, I have authorized the use of the Nemesis Program to hunt them down."

"Project Y/N is to be captured alive, not terminated. I did not have one of my best operatives wasted on a trial and error chance with the T-virus, only for him to be eliminated by Dr. Isaacs' new pet."

"On the contrary, your man is quite a powerful force here in the city." Cain responded, biting his lip before deciding flatter. "If anything, I'm sure he'll be more than capable of defending himself against such a foe, as his training demanded."

"Be that as it may, if anything happens to the project, you will pay the price. I don't suffer mistakes in my ranks, foolishness even less. But if you think the beast is capable, then by all means."

"Thank you, sir." Cain blew a sigh of relief as he wiped his brow of the sweat that gathered in its wake.

"If the Nemesis Program fails to capture him, Operative Rodrigo will be there to correct its mistakes."

Major Cain thought otherwise, "Forgive me, sir. But I have complete faith in the Nemesis Program. I have not seen such an ability before and the T-virus proves to be an excellent edge."

"I believe you misunderstand, Major. That was not a suggestion, that was an order. My operative will move into secure Project Y/N with, or without your program. Don't begin to believe that you hold all the cards because you command the Raccoon City garrison. You have a job to do. Get. It. Done."

The call ended before Major Cain could respond, and he soon found himself shaking his head, and clearing his brow with his sleeve as the cold monotone voice of his superior played in his ears. Shivering, not from the cold night, he walked back into the command tent and resumed what control he had.

A/N: Aye, we got the reunion, but shit, there's tension all around and now we've got the Nemesis to worry about next. Shit's about to go down.